Fake me out at the ballgame
Virtual crowds this season for MLB on Fox
LOS ANGELES — Fox will be taking viewers out to the ballgame by adding a virtual crowd in parks during its Major League Baseball broadcasts this season.
The network revealed Thursday that it will include computer-generated fans in the stands beginning with the three games it televises Saturday. Fox begins its coverage with the Milwaukee Brewers at the Chicago Cubs, followed by the San Francisco Giants at the Los Angeles Dodgers, and concluding with the New York Yankees at the Washington Nationals.
Given that fan opinions about crowd noise being added to baseball games has been mixed, Fox may draw some jeers for adding virtual fans. Fox Sports vice president Brad Zager, who oversees live event productions and operations, hopes people give it a chance.
“We believe that what we’re doing is creating a natural viewing experience,” Zager said. “Sports is supposed to be an escape, and when people have that escape we want it to feel as normal as possible when there’s very little normalcy, like a crowd at a baseball game on a Saturday.
“We’re not looking to fool everyone. We know it is a virtual crowd. But we also know how jarring watching a game in an empty stadium is on TV.”
Fox has been working on a solution to no crowds since late March, when most realized spectators were not going to be allowed to return to MLB stadiums because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Fox Sports CEO and executive producer Eric Shanks said the early versions of the virtual crowds looked rudimentary and resembled “a better version of Donkey Kong” but have improved exponentially since then.
“We knew quickly that we were going to have to look at crowd and audio in a different way. The only thing we didn’t know was the date when we were going to have to be ready to go,” Zager said.
It is definitely an improvement over the virtual crowds Spain’s top soccer league used. The fans on those broadcasts appeared as if they were imposed on a blank background. The Fox version features fans who appear lifelike and three-dimensional.
Fox worked on the project with Silver Spoon, a real-time animation and virtual production studio. Silver Spoon scanned in all the ballparks and fans so their motions sitting and standing could be properly rendered. The fans can do up to 500 actions, ranging from high-fives after a home run to doing the wave.
The system can control the percentage of fans in the stadium during a game as well as who they are cheering for. For example, Saturday’s Brewers-Cubs game could create a crowd that is 75% Cubs and 25% Brewers. It can also make it appear as if most of them have left if it is a 9-1 ballgame in the ninth inning.
The system will be able to adapt to the weather — when the temperature gets colder in the fall, winter jackets and hats can be added to the fans — and Zager said Fox will enhance the crowd noise in addition to what MLB is supplying in the park.
“I’m loving it more and more as we progressed through each version,” Shanks said. “This has really dialed in the accuracy of the fans to make it imperceptible on the wide shots to real fans.”
Cleveland talks
CLEVELAND — Before the Cleveland Indians make a definitive decision on changing their nickname, they’ll listen to those they may have most offended over the past 105 years.
Franchise owner Paul Dolan said the team will speak to Native American groups as one of the preliminary steps in the potential name change, which was spurred by a national movement this summer to remove racist symbols and monuments.
Earlier this week, Dolan, whose family took ownership of the franchise in 2000, met with Cleveland’s front office staff, manager Terry Francona and players to discuss the possibility of the name change as well as other matters such as social justice and race relations. Dolan called the talks “candid and productive.”
The Indians’ decision to consider a name change comes on the heels of Washington’s NFL team dropping the name Redskins along with a logo deemed racist and offensive by many. On Thursday, the football franchise said it will go by the Washington Football Team for the 2020 season until a new, fulltime name is chosen.
Dolan said his team intends to share “periodic updates as we make progress” on the name change. The team hasn’t definitively said it would drop Indians, which has been its name since 1915, but it appears there’s momentum toward that taking place.